The Best Unfairly Obscure Books of the 1980s

[james_davis_nicoll]

Once a year, a question gets asked on rec.arts.sf.written: what were the best books of a given decade? So far this has been asked about the '50s, '60s and '70s so I am going to compile a list of candidates for the next time. I'd like to single out the best books that -aren't- commonly known or which at least saw lousy distribution.

My top two are the Rosinante trilogy (Alexis Gilliland)[1] and The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook, which got buried by Warner thingie (Questar?) when they had it. I should go look at the copyright on my George Turners. I am sure he did Drowning Towers back then, but Beloved Son is too early.

What books would you folks push?


1: Which I will count as a single because! that's why! Just Because!

Comments

[rosefox]

How on earth do you keep track of when things were published? The only books whose pub dates I know have titles like "Best SF of the Year 1986". I read so many used books that I'm generally completely ignorant of when they were written and/or first saw the light of day.

I might nominate Terry Carr's "Best SF of the Year" from 1984, though; it may not qualify, being an anthology, but I think it's the single book in my entire library that I have read and reread and rereread the most.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

How do I keep track? Obsession. I forget people, places, why I am standing in my hallway, but I remember books.

When I was a kid, my parents used me as the family card catalogue.

Anything edited by Carr was gold. If he were still alive, he'd probably have livened up recent SF with something akin to the effect he had with the first and third Ace Science Fiction Specials.

[rosefox]

One of the great tragedies of being a golden-age SF fan born in 1978 is that all the people I really wanted to meet died before I went to my first con. Carr was at the top of the list. I collect his work near-obsessively. Merrill, too. *sigh* It makes it hard to read more modern collections, honestly. I've just been spoiled.

Of course, I guess I feel that way about a lot of what's written today of any length, though doing F&SF book reviews for the last couple of years has--contrary to my expectations--introduced me to a surprising number of new writers whose work I really like. Maybe once they're all done rehashing Arthurian legend to death, we'll see an upswing in good original tale-telling. In the meantime, I'll be over here with Ackermanthology!.

[thette.livejournal.com]

I think it was just the book mentioned above I bought in a small town used bookshop on the plains of Sweden. For what compares to less than two dollars, US or Canadian.

I mentioned to the shopkeeper how happy I was that she sold a science fiction collection with one of the best editors ever, and got a shrug and a nonchalant answer. Somehow, it offended me.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I'll second The Dragon Never Sleeps loudly and intensely. Also, George R.R. Martin's The Armageddon Rag; it's merry hell to find and it's brilliant, only thing I've ever read that made epic-scale conflict in the real world work.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

That's a good one. If I recall Martin's comments in Quartet, it tanked but I have never been able to see why.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that it tanked then that annoys me, as that everything else of Martin's appears to be getting rereleased on the strength of Song of Ice and Fire's success and I'd really like to see Armageddon Rag doing so too. I mean, I can easily think of a dozen people for whom I would personally buy copies, for a start.

To be fair, I can see how it might be a difficult book to place in order to get it to the range of people who might like it.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Bantam is re-releasing Armageddon Rag next month. They sent me an advance copy, but as I already had it, I passed it along to a Martin fan at my office.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Oh how wonderful!

[j-shelbourne.livejournal.com]

Hurray!

I remember dinner with him at a con in Waterloo, lo these many years ago, and he mentioned that when he did readings he always did Froggie with a special voice. He then demonstrated, but I can't possibly duplicate it here.

(Of course, now I will be attributing Froggie to the wrong book...)

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

In fact, every time you mention Armageddon Dreams I think you're talking about Armageddon Rag. Sometimes I figure out that you're not, and sometimes I just move on.

[slothphil.livejournal.com]

Yes, great book. I seem to recall playing a lot of Blue Oyster Cult when reading it. Maybe it's time for a re-read.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Gameplayers of Zan is too early. Darn.

Hugart's Bridge of Birds isn't, though. Not sure if it counts as obscure.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

BRIDGE OF BIRDS may not be out of print, either. Alice Bentley republished an omnibus edition that included it, a few years ago. Although maybe it is O.P. by now...

[kate_nepveu]

It's actually still in print from Del Rey, though only that one. I see it in stores quite often, and it ships in 24 hours from Amazon.

My guess is that it's not obscure among genre readers.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Second the Gilliland recommendation. He's written more books with that sort of charm and wit, but they are unfashionable and haven't been published.

Gilliland

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

My understanding it that he got royally screwed by Lester del Rey, who pushed him into fantasy. The print curve of the Wizenbeak trilogy was terrible and so was the sales curve, which convinced stores his career was over (See Westlake's _The Axe_).

I got to here him read at Torcon III and it was a nice SFnal Gilliland. Hope it sells.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Marjorie Bradley Kellogg's Wave and the Flame and Reign of Fire (one book in two volumes), rather good SF in the small but cool "eeeevil company employing good scientists and anthropologists on a planet of correct but seemingly deluded aliens" genre. I liked them a lot. Also her Harmony.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

gah. i had one, but nooo it was published in 1979. drat.

(san diego lightfoot sue, short story collection, tom reamy. bought it off of a "you should read this really really really" shelf at dreamhaven, and was not sorry.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

And his only novel Blind Voices is from 1978.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Judith Tarr Ars Magica (1989)
Milorad Pavic Dictionary of the Khazars (1988)
"S. Morgenstern" The Silent Gondoliers (1983)
Robert Holdstock Mythago Wood (1984)
Kara Dalkey Euryale (1988)
and, although it won the Nebula*, Michael Bishop No Enemy But Time

*Not to denigrate the Nebula, but because the request for for books that aren't commonly known or saw lousy distribution.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I don't think an international bestseller can justly be called "obscure."

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I'm pretty active in fandom around these parts and am aware of most of the big titles, though I don't have as much time to read as I'd like any more, and I don't recognize the title (though I do recognize the author).

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I meant The Dictionary of the Khazars.

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well, in that case, I haven't heard of the book or the author. Obviously I'm not as well-read as I thought.

[larryhammer]

Ian McDonald, Out on Blue Six

[larryhammer]

Patrick Adkins, who wrote a partial series that started with Lord of the Crocked Paths, where the title character is Chronos. Zeus was born by the end of the second book, and was an adolescent in the third, and he then vanished off the pubishing stage. The last was also significantly weaker, but the first was unjustly overlooked.

---L.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

He seems to be self-publishing now and has a fourth book out, although I get the (unsubstantiated) feeling it's a trunk novel.

[larryhammer]

Huh. I see what you mean about trunkiness. Thanks for the pointer.

---L.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Heather Gladney, who wrote two books of a trilogy then vanished. Teot's War(1987) and Blood Storm(1989); masterful bleak worldbuilding.

[eub.livejournal.com]

Sara Banerji's Cobwebwalking is peculiar and carefully made, and I think I would attach "good" to it.

Steven Bauer's Satyrday is 80's, right? Of marginal obscurity, I suppose.

My goodness, Blanpied's Dragons: The Modern Infestation (1980) is in print.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It's a shame late period Simak tends to be so minor.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I thought of three more, all by John M. Ford: Web of Angels (cyberpunk before cyberpunk), The Princes of the Air and The Dragon Waiting.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how obscure one could call The Dragon Waiting, though, it's certainly been through a healthy number of editions, and I believe it's still in print in Millennium Fantasy Masterworks in the UK. Utterly marvellous book which more people should read, yes, but not vanished.